Campaign finance reformers vow to fight on in Thornton

The grassroots group advocating for campaign finance reform in Thornton did not collect the required signatures to put the issue on the ballot, but that doesn’t mean their fight is over, organizers say.

The group had 21 days to collect 8,565 signatures for a referendum starting June 4. According to Roberta Ayala, a sponsor of the petition, the group only collected a few thousand. 

According to Thornton’s city charter, however, the deadline to collect sigantures is rolling. The group has 180 days to collect the signatures but all the signatures must be within a 21-day window.

For example, if 500 signatures were collected on day one and then the group collects more signatures on day 22, then the signees from day one would not count but those on day 22 would. 

Seeing support

Ayala said she has lived in Thornton her whole life and has never seen a grassroots initiative before this one. 

“I’ve never seen a singular issue that has had this much support, and so I’m hopeful we’ll either reach our goal or that council will be willing to start listening to the residents that are interested in doing something about it,” she said. 

So far, the group received positive feedback from residents.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of residents these last few weeks and most of the people have been appalled to learn that we don’t have basic reforms in place,” Ayala said. “We’ve had overwhelming support in just a short amount of time and that shows this is…